Weekend Assignment #154: Your Car or Your Computer? : John Scalzi says that you must choose between the car — beloved icon of American greatness and freedom — and the computer — the defining machine of the 21st century. If you choose the car, you do not get to touch a computer again, except for basic work-related purposes at work. If you choose the computer, no more personal wheels for you. And for those of you in a two-car family, there’s none of this “oh, I’ll just ride in my spouse’s car” stuff: Any rides you bum have to be outside your immediate family. Similarly, no using the spouse’s or kid’s computers, and those of you with super-enabled cell phones will henceforth use them only for phone calls. No Web-browsing, e-mail or text messaging. See, now it’s gotten harder, hasn’t it?

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I would choose my computer. No questions. Here are the specs that I bought and built:

Personally, I love the way Gabe captures the expressions of both the kid who’s trying to buy the game, vs. the fat and stupid man representing Sony’s online commerce. If you haven’t checked out Penny-Arcade yet, this is a great site to get neat gaming reviews and overly opinionated and intelligent banter on the latest geeky trends.

Would one of the greatest minds on earth put his life at risk to experience space travel? Unless drastic changes are made in our ability to lift humans into space without all the thrust and G forces, Hawking would most certainly be hurt upon his ascent into the heavens. If anything, someone would have to introduce a pressure suit to stabilize his head and chest while keeping an eye on other vital functions just to survive the initial lift-off. While trained astronauts can take the pressures of 3Gs, someone with Hawking’s condition would have difficulty breathing, not to mention a slew of cardiac and joint problems.

While he may be going on Zero Gravity’s flight with trained doctors and available medical equipment, Hawking’s dream to break the atmospheric barrier might be crushed if we can’t devise a better space shuttle.